For now there was a new responsibility, that all the wardroom discussed freely in Bucklands absenceBuckland was already fenced in by the solitude that surrounds the captain of a ship of war. This was Bucklands sole responsibility, and the wardroom could watch Buckland wrestling with it, as they would watch a prizefighter in the ring; there even were bets laid on the result, as to whether or not Buckland would take the final plunge, whether or not he would take the ultimate step that would proclaim himself as in command of the Renown and the captain as incurable.
Locked in the captains desk were the captains papers, and among those papers were the secret orders addressed to him by the Lords of the Admiralty. No other eyes than the captains had seen those orders as yet; not a soul in the ship could make any guess at their contents. They might be merely routine orders, directing the Renown perhaps to join Admiral Bickertons squadron; but also they might reveal some diplomatic secret of the kind that no mere lieutenant could be entrusted with. On the one hand Buckland could continue to head for Antigua, and there he could turn over his responsibilities to whoever was the senior officer. There might be some junior captain who could be transferred to the Renown, to read the orders and carry off the ship on whatever mission was allotted her. On the other hand Buckland could read the orders now; they might deal with some matter of the greatest urgency. Antigua was a convenient landfall for ships to make from England, but from a military point of view it was not so desirable, being considerably to leeward of most of the points of strategic importance.
If Buckland took the ship down to Antigua and then she had to beat back to windward he might be sharply rapped on the knuckles by My Lords of the Admiralty; yet if he read the secret orders on that account he might be reprimanded for his presumption. The wardroom could guess at his predicament and each individual officer could congratulate himself upon not being personally involved while wondering what Buckland would do about it.
Bush and Hornblower stood side by side on the poop, feet wide apart on the heaving deck, as they steadied themselves and looked through their sextants at the horizon. Through the darkened glass Bush could see the image of the sun reflected from the mirror. With infinite pains he moved the arm round, bringing the image down closer
and closer to the horizon. The pitch of the ship over the long blue rollers troubled him, but he persevered, decided in the end that the image of the sun was just sitting on the horizon, and clamped the sextant. Then he could read and record the measurement. As a concession to newfangled prejudices, he decided to follow Hornblowers example and observe the altitude also from the opposite point of the horizon. He swung round and did so, and as he recorded this reading he tried to remember what he had to do about half the difference between the two readings. And the index error, and the dip. He looked round to find that Hornblower had already finished his observation and was standing waiting for him.
Thats the greatest altitude Ive ever measured, remarked Hornblower. Ive never been as far south as this before. Whats your result?
They compared readings.
Thats accurate enough, said Hornblower. Whats the difficulty?
Oh, I can shoot the sun, said Bush. No trouble about that. Its the calculations that bother methose damned corrections.
Hornblower raised an eyebrow for a moment. He was accustomed to taking his own observations each noon and making his own calculations of the ships position, in order to keep himself in practice. He was aware of the mechanical difficulty of taking an accurate observation in a moving ship, butalthough he knew plenty of other instances he still could not believe that any man could really find the subsequent mathematics difficult. They were so simple to him that when Bush had asked him if he could join him in their noontime exercise for the sake of improving himself he had taken it for granted that it was only the mechanics of using a sextant that troubled Bush. But he politely concealed his surprise.
Theyre easy enough, he said, and then he added sir. A wise officer, too, did not make too much display of his superior ability when speaking to his senior. He phrased his next speech carefully.
If you were to come below with me, sir, you could check through my calculations.
Bush listened in patience to Hornblowers explanation. They made the problem perfectly clear for the momentit was by a hurried lastminute reading up that Bush had been able to pass his examination for lieutenant, although it was seamanship and not navigation that got him throughbut Bush knew by bitter experience that tomorrow it would be hazy again.
Now we can plot the position, said Hornblower, bending over the chart.
Bush watched as Hornblowers capable fingers worked the parallel rulers across the chart; Hornblower had long bony hands with something of beauty about them, and it was actually fascinating to watch them doing work at which they were so supremely competent. The powerful fingers picked up the pencil and ruled a line.